I May Have Lost My Mind

[Sonicularity]

I had a song stuck in my head over the last couple of days.  I'm over 50 and listen to tons of music across many genres, past and present.  This particular tune seemed like a late 60's or early 70's rock tune.  I was thinking Moby Grape or maybe Humble Pie, with a possibility of it being Buffalo Springfield.  I knew most of the lyrics, which is rare for me as I frequently hear any lyrics as just more sound, I could hum the general melody, and it was certainly one of the songs I had flagged as a favorite at some point on one or many streaming sites I have been listening to for years. 

 

When I managed to have some spare time and remembered this tune, I did some research attempting to identify the song that had been bugging me the last few days.  Knowing that this song was a favorite, but not being able to place it, I went to my old Google Music account and searched through my songs that I have given a thumbs up on over the last 5 years.  No matter how I sorted the songs, by artist or title, I was not able to see anything that looked familiar.  Knowing most of the lyrics, I was able to find the song in a Google search.  As soon as I saw the song title, I immediately remembered the artist and the song, The Flying Burrito Brothers - "All Alone."  This is clearly a favorite song of mine, though I listen to an average of over 40 songs per day in a year between work, home, and my travels. This song was not found on my Google Music account.  I did not have any Flying Burrito Brothers albums in my library, and "All Alone" had never been played once.  When I did listen to the song, it was different.  It was not the same song I fell in love with, and the pace and mix was totally off.

 

The song I strongly believe that I was hearing before has been removed on Google Music, Tidal, Qobuz, and Apple Music.  Not even YouTube had the song I once remembered.  Maybe I am not remembering the song correctly?  The only reason I posted this message at all was that I could not find this song ever being played on any of my streaming services until tonight, while I know I have listened to this song back to back at least 5 times on at least one occasion.  It is a favorite, or at least it was a favorite.  It is different now.

 

I bought a used CD from the anthology album version I'm nearly certain I was listening to before, and it will be delivered in a week.  

 

Was there a new master released?  Can anyone help identify if there is a different version of this song that has been removed from streaming services and online play?

 

Edit: I just checked and see that I have 43 scrobbles on Last.FM for this song since 2012 from this album: Hot Burritos! The Flying Burrito Brothers Anthology (1969 - 1972).

 

  

 

 

[bluesman]

 

[Hugo9000]

If this is accurate, it shows a much shorter version on an anthology release as compared to the other albums shown here:

 

https://www.allmusic.com/song/all-alone-mt0009620917

 

 

The timing is listed as only 2:23 on disc two of this anthology:

 

https://www.allmusic.com/album/hot-burritos!-the-flying-burrito-brothers-anthology-1969-1972-mw0000060947

 

That may have been a misprint, or it's been changed on youtube, because this seems to be the same as the other versions:

 

 

I see there is a discussion thread about them on the Hoffman forum, you could ask there if anyone is aware of an alternate release:

 

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/four-days-of-rain-the-flying-burrito-brothers-album-by-album-thread.100699/

[daverich4]

Tidal has it. Song #16 on the second disc. 
 

 

[Sonicularity]

Every version I have been able to play sounds the same today.  It seemed different to me when I was hearing it the other day, and it still seems different to me.  

 

What is odd is that it is one of the 60 or so songs that I had given a thumbs up rating in my Google Play Music library, but it was missing when I checked.

 

The song came up while shuffling my albums in Roon that is connected to both Qobuz Studio Premier and Tidal HiFi.  It seemed off from the beginning, and especially in the part of the song around 1:07-1:19 where the lyrics go "He was gone in the early morning" into the next verse that has an unusual pause before it begins "And he said, he wouldn't be long."  

 

I was immediately struck by the idea that this was not the same version I had heard many times before.

 

All of my searches in Roon using Tidal and Qobuz resulted in the same odd results.

 

What is strange is that this album has been in my library since 2012, and this particular song was a rare title I considered to be a favorite of mine.

 

With Google, I can sort every song in my library by number of plays, and this song and the artist where missing completely, which is crazy.  They are one of my top 20 artists.  This means that whatever I was listening to before, has been removed.  Maybe what I was listening to before was the unicorn?

 

I have to admit that the current version is most likely superior in quality with regards to the overall mix and mastering, but I am still extremely curious to know if there actually was a difference or whether my mind is just being fooled and I am mistaken about there ever being any difference.

 

I know there are 2 version of the anthology album, one is US and the other is Japan, but Discogs claims that these titles are taken from the same album, and they would essentially be identical.  It just seems too weird that every instance now sounds the same and it was just Google Music that was using this one different version that I was hearing over 40 times according to my Last.FM scrobbles.  Especially since Google owns YouTube.  

 

I got one of the CD versions being delivered in the next few weeks.  If this sounds the same, I will track down the other version and have that delivered as well.  

 

In the end, if I can't find this "other" version of the song, I will concede that my memory and hearing perception were tricked, which is VERY common.  I will say that I got it wrong.  You can't trust your ears if you have not made an attempt to isolate them in any sound evaluation.  In fact, you are not trusting your ears if you don't try to remove bias, as there are so many other factors that can sway your opinion.